An utterly dazzling book the best piece of history I have read for a long time Jerry Brotton author of A History of the World in Twelve MapsNot merely an horologists delight but an ingenious meditation on the nature and symbolism of timekeeping itself Richard HolmesThe measurement of time has always been essential to human civilization from early Roman sundials to the advent of GPS. But while we have one eye on the time every day are we aware of the power clocks have given governments military leaders and business owners and how they have shaped our lives and our worldIn this spectacularly farreaching book David Rooney narrates a history of timekeeping and civilization in twelve concise chapters. Over their course we meet the most epochal inventions in horological history from medieval water clocks to Renaissance hourglasses and from stockexchange timestamps to satellites in Earths orbit.